Irish Land—Originating Requests.

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he will state the number of estates in which originating requests under Section G of the Land Purchase Act of 1903, were lodged with the Estates Commissioners in each of the years ending March 1904, 1905, 1906, and 1907; and how many estates, with the names of them, in which originating requests lodged in the year ending March, 1905, have not yet been dealt with, as well as the cause of the delay.

The number of originating requests under Section 6 of the Land Act of 1903, lodged with the Estates Commissioners was, in the year ending March 1904, twenty-one; 1905, eighty-three; 1906, seventy-three; and 1907, ninety-one. Out of the eighty-three estates as to which requests were lodged in 1905, fifteen cases remain in which the formal agreement for purchase has not yet been completed. These cases will be closed as soon as the statutory requirements as to title and resale have been complied with. The Commissioners are dealing with all of these cases as rapidly as possible, and they do not think that anything would be gained by giving in answer to a Question the names of the particular estates in which delay has occurred or entering into the causes of delay in each particular case.